Jewish activist killed in prison

LOS ANGELES – A Jewish Defense League activist imprisoned for his role in a plot to bomb a California mosque and the office of a Lebanese-American congressman was killed at a federal prison in Phoenix, an FBI spokesman said Saturday.

Earl Krugel, 62, was killed in an assault Friday evening at the Federal Correctional Institution, said FBI agent Richard Murray.

Krugel’s wife, Lola, said FBI investigators told her an inmate had struck her husband on the head from behind with a cement block.

“Earl never saw it happening,” she said. “He was exercising.”

He had been at the medium-security prison for three days, according to his sister Linda Krugel.

Earl Krugel, a former dental assistant from Los Angeles, and late JDL leader Irv Rubin were arrested in 2001 and charged with conspiring to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and a field office of Rep. Darrell Issa, who is Lebanese-American.

Krugel pleaded guilty in 2003 to one count of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers at the mosque and one count of carrying an explosive device in connection with a conspiracy to impede or injure an office of the United States.

Despite the plea, he was sentenced in September to 20 years in prison.

During the case, Krugel’s lawyers said prosecutors were angered that his client withheld for several months the names of four people allegedly connected to the 1985 murder case of Alex Odeh, a regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Former JDL members were suspected, but no one was charged.

“Earl did not deserve what he got,” Krugel’s wife said Saturday. “It was all political. It was all about Alex Odeh and my husband did not know anything about Alex Odeh. I’m devastated and I’m shocked that the system allowed this to happen.”